Kids Week Day 3

Jul 11, 2013

We are still going strong in the Pace household. Each night before falling asleep, Madelyn and I talk about all the things we will do the next day then during the day we talk about all the things we will do tomorrow… can you tell we are always talking about what we are going to do each waking moment of the day. So today, we made Happy Face cookies, made another Bead Buddy for a tutorial, created a Faux Cupcake and drank Fish Bowl Punch.

Making these Happy Face sugar cookies is super easy and fun kids food to make. The only clean up is washing the cookie sheet which is awesome for moms or aunts that have a niece wondering what they will be making after they finish making cookies.

To make Madelyn’s “Happy Face Cookies” place sugar cookie squares from a Pillsbury Sugar Cookie package (24 count), flatten each square just a bit to form a circle, add colored sugar to the top of each cookie and bake as instructed on the package. Once baked and slightly cooled put a drop of food coloring (we used Neon Pink & Purple) into two separate small cups mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. Using a paint brush paint a happy face onto each cookie. Then using Rainbow Nerds place nerds into the painted happy face of each cookie. Super fun = Super Happy Niece.

Madelyn recreated a Bead Buddy so you can make this fun little buddy with your kids. You will need Pipe Cleaners, Neon Plastic Craft Beads for the Buddy’s Arms, Legs and Body and Wooden Beads for the Buddy’s Head.

Twist 3 pipe cleaners several times in the center to secure the pipe cleaners together.

Bend the pipe cleaners upwards at the center of the twist.

To create the legs for your Buddy, bend down two pipe cleaners.

To create the arms for your Buddy, bend two pipe cleaners to the side of your Buddy.

To create the body of your Buddy, keeping the legs together, thread 5 Neon Plastic Craft Beads onto both pipe cleaners that are being held together as one.

Once the body of the Buddy is created, separate the two pipe cleaners to create the legs and thread 8 Neon Plastic Craft Beads onto each leg. Bend the excess pipe cleaner end to form a foot and push the end up into the bead. Repeat these steps to create the second leg and foot.

Thread 6 Neon Plastic Beads onto each arm. Bend the excess pipe cleaner end to form a hand and push the end up into the bead. Repeat these steps to create the second arm and hand.

Thread the Wooden Bead onto the remaining two pipe cleaners pushing it all the way to the top of the body. Bend the excess pipe cleaner ends to form the hair for your Buddy. Using a Sharpie draw a face onto the Wooden Bead.

This was a really fun project to do with Madelyn. She has been counting down the seconds until we made a Faux Cupcake. I got the idea of making one with her on Pinterest. There are lots of pins for this type project. You can see some I pinned in my “Things to do with my nieces” Pinterest Board.

To make our faux cupcake you will need Plaster, Cupcake Liner, Aluminum Foil, Paint, Liquid Pearls, Plastic Ballerina, Paint Brush, Dixie Cup, Popsicle Stick, Old Muffin Tin that you don’t use anymore. We created our cupcake in two steps.

Fill a 5 oz. Dixie cup with Plaster, add enough water to make the plaster the thickness of pancake batter. It does not take much water at all.

Place a cupcake liner into a muffin tin and pour the plaster into the liner until it is filled to your desired height. We left about a 1/4 of the liner unfilled. Let the plaster dry. It will take a good 30 min. Once the plaster dries you can tear off the excess cupcake liner.

While the plaster is drying create the top of your cupcake by shaping a piece of aluminum foil into a 1/2 ball. Once the plaster is dry place the aluminum foil 1/2 ball onto the top of the dried plaster in the liner.

Mix another batch of plaster just as you did for the base of your cupcake. Pour some plaster onto the top of the aluminum foil, using your fingers (Madelyn really loved this part) ice the cupcake with the plaster. Continue adding plaster until all the aluminum foil is covered. Stick the plastic ballerina into the top center of the icing. You might need to hold it in place for just a bit until the plaster hardens enough to keep it upright. Let the cupcake dry completly.

Once the plaster is dry, using a paint brush, paint the icing with acrylic paint and create sprinkles using Liquid Pearls. Let dry.

While waiting for Madelyn’s faux cupcake to dry in between steps we thought it was time for a nice refreshing drink. Because you know, crafting is such hard work and what better kind of drink on a labor intensive crafting day than one in a fish bowl. I found this idea on Pinterest and instantly pinned it to my “Things to do with my nieces” board. I knew Madelyn would love it and I was right. Although, the version I found contained alcohol so we went with Blue Hawaiian Punch instead. Madelyn highly recommends you make this with your kids. It’s fun. Although, the Nerds do make the water a bit cloudy after a bit so if you think this might gross out your kids leave the Nerds (a.k.a. fish rocks out). The cute flamingo straw was purchased from the Dollar Tree.

And for dinner we had Neon Rainbow Spaghetti, once again… it’s a true hit! Then it was off to the Snow Cone Lady to get a Cotton Candy Snow Cone. Tomorrow, we will be making the sundae cookies and decorating jumbo marshmallows, so I’ve been told.

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Kids Crafts

About Lisa M. Pace

My second book, “Delight In The Seasons,” was published in January of 2012. My third tech­nique-based book, “Delight In The Art of Col­lage”, is sched­uled for pub­li­ca­tion in Jan­u­ary 2014 by North Light Books/F+W Media Inc .